The Tax Agency has increased Teigen’s taxable income by NOK 395,411 for the period 2016 to 2018, and calculated an increased tax of NOK 173,091 for the same period, according to an inspection of the equation news has received from the Tax Agency. The date for Teigen’s new tax calculation is in mid-November 2022, at the same time that the Tax Authority made decisions in several of the other commuter housing cases. Espen Teigen was Sylvi Listhaug’s adviser for several years, and was responsible for Listhaug’s accounts on social media, among other things. In 2016, it was Listhaug’s Facebook post that “Ap believes the terrorists’ rights are more important than the nation’s security”, which led to her having to resign as Minister of Justice. In an email to news, Teigen acknowledges that parts of the tax claim are linked to the commuter accommodation he managed as a political adviser for Listhaug, but writes that “a large part of the sum” is linked to a tax backlash for other matters such as not related to the commuter accommodation. “It is quite obvious that I have messed up, and it is primarily about documentation requirements. I have of course rented a home and had expenses with it in Trøndelag,” writes Teigen. Teigen has not answered questions about how much of the tax claim is linked to the commuter home, and how much is due to other factors. He has also not answered whether he has also been charged a penalty tax. Teigen did not want to give news access to the decision from the Tax Agency. TWO STEPS BEHIND: Espen Teigen has been an adviser to Sylvi Listhaug on several occasions. He was also for a short time press manager in the Progress Party. Photo: Torstein Bøe / NTB Rented by friend who died Teigen’s moving history shows that he reported moving from Oslo to an address in Hell outside Trondheim in 2015. He was appointed as political adviser to Sylvi Listhaug in February 2016. Teigen reported moving back to Oslo when he left the government apparatus in 2018. According to Teigen, the move was due to the fact that he had already received a concrete job offer in a company in Trøndelag when the adviser position in the Ministry of Justice came up. “I had signed a contract and the whole package. I have nothing to do with the fact that there was suddenly an opportunity for a position as a political adviser. Never in my life had the courage to move a whole load of things up to Trøndelag, and then return like a boomerang back to Oslo,” he writes. Teigen writes that he was a real weekly commuter to Trondheim during the period he had commuter accommodation in Oslo. Among other things, he points out that he got a girlfriend in Trondheim during this period. The then Minister of Justice Sylvi Listhaug emphasized that she is giving an unreserved apology when she met the press in the walking hall in the Storting on 15 March 2018. The case concerned the Facebook post in which Sylvi Listhaug claimed the Labor Party puts the terrorists’ rights before the nation’s security. Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB Teigen believes that the tax claim for the commuter accommodation is based on the fact that he lacks documentation that he rented parts of a basement flat from a friend. “Then I have been miserable at documenting the tenancy in a good enough way, because this was with someone I knew. Thus, I have simply raised the flag and acknowledged that I have messed up on the rules, even though I was of course a perfectly legitimate commuter to Trøndelag”. news has asked if Teigen has any written documentation of the tenancy with the friend, in the form of a lease or a copy of an e-mail. To this, Teigen replies that “I have already admitted that I turned completely out”. Teigen explains that the friend he rented from later died of illness, and writes that “therefore I also have no one to back me up in my claims”. Covered public waste Teigen has for two periods been employed as a journalist in Nettavisen, where he has distinguished himself by writing cases about public waste. Among other things, Teigen wrote several cases about the financier Are Søberg’s project “Sløseriombudsmannen”. He also wrote several critical articles about public multi-million grants for research and art projects. Nettavisen editor Gunnar Stavrum has also become involved in the debate about the commuter housing cases. Last year, while Teigen was again working in Nettavisen, Stavrum wrote that “the tax cheats with free commuter accommodation must put their cards on the table now”. Today, Stavrum will not comment on the tax claim against his former employee, or answer whether he thinks Teigen is a tax cheat: STANDING STAND: Gunnar Stavrum says he does not want to comment on the private finances of a former employee. Photo: Mariam Butt / NTB – Firstly, I do not know his case, so I cannot comment on his case. What I wrote last November stands firm. – What do you think about the fact that one of your employees has now received such a demand? – I do not want to comment on a former employee’s personal finances and a matter I am not aware of. So then I can only say that I will not comment on that. Teigen believes that no one needs to worry about the public sector’s income. “Anyone who might be worried about the public finances can also be comforted by the fact that every single kroner, and so on, is paid and sorted out,” Teigen writes, and continues: “Of course, it’s crazy for me to pay a huge sum to the tax authority, but when you have done something wrong, you have to make up for yourself – and admit mistakes, you also have to move on”. BAKSMELL: Espen Teigen admits a tax lien for the commuter accommodation he had as a political adviser in the Ministry of Justice between 2016 and 2018. Teigen believes he was a “real weekly commuter” to Trondheim. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB Listhaug is silent on Teigen Frp leader Sylvi Listhaug was very critical of the politicians’ commuter housing arrangements in the autumn of 2021, and believed that the rules needed to be tightened. – There have been many such cases in recent years – in many different parties. So we just have to try to put an end to that. Because it goes beyond the trust of everyone, Listhaug told VG in September 2021. During this period, Teigen was her adviser. That he is now among those who have received a tax claim, Listhaug does not wish to comment today. – Listhaug believes that those who have cases must clean up their cases. We said that at the time, and it still stands, says Frp’s communications manager Jon Engen-Helgheim.
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